Improvement in hooped skirts



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

CHARLES H. DE FOREST, OF BIRMINGHAM, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN HOOPED SKlFtTS Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,336, dated January 6, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, C. H. DE FOREST, of Birmingham, of the county of New Haven, in the State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improved Method of Fastening the Hoops to the Tapes in Hoop-Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this application.

My invention relates to that kind of hoopskirts in which the tapes or vertical stra-ps are woven or formed-with pockets or loops, through which the hoops pass, and which sustain or support the hoops; and my invention has for its object a simple, durable, and effective means of retaining or holding the hoops in the pockets in their proper positions, or, in other words, to prevent the tapes from sliding on the hoops; and to this end my invention consists in the employment, in combination with the hoopand pocket-tape, of a metallic retaining-clasp, so arranged as to prevent the hoop from sliding through or in the pocket, substantially as hereinafter described.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use myinvention, I will describe the construction and operation of my improvement, referring to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of a suliicient portion of a hoop-skirt to show my invention. Fig. 2 is a view showing the hoop and tape disconnected. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the clasp. Fig. 4 illustrates the method of applying the clasp, and shows it partially inserted or arranged; and Fig. 5 illustrates the mode Vof securing the clasp in position-all of which will be hereinafter fully explained.

In the several views the same letters indicate the same part.

A is the tape, in which is woven a pocket, a, for the reception of the hoop B, which is held up or sustained by the said pocket, (in the manner well known to those skilled in the art.) C is a metallic clasp, the shape of which will be best explained by the drawings.

In the manufacture of the skirts, after the hoops have been arranged in the pockets of the tapes A, I apply the retaining-clasp C at the pockets a, as illustrated at Fig. 4.-, by forcing the points l 2 through the sides of the pocket until they are in the position to be clinched or turned over, as seen in Fig. 5, the hoop B being embraced between the points of the clasp, at the upper and lower edges of the former, and held between the body 3 of the clasp and its clinched points. Although the connection thus made between the hoop B and the textile fabric ot' the pocket might not be sufficient or good for supporting the weight of the hoop B, (which is sustained by the pocket,) it is sufficient to perfectly retain the hoop in its proper position in the pocket of the tape or strap A.

lt will be understood that it is not material that the clasp C be made in the precise form shown, though I have practiced my invention asherein described and shown, and found it to work perfectly satisfactoi ily.

I do not wish to limit my invention to any particular form of the clasp C or method of tastening it, so long as it performs the functions ascribed to it; neither do I wish to be understood as laying any claim to the employment of a knotted cord in lieu of the clasp C, as such a device has been employed previous to my invention.

What I claim as my improvement in hoopskirts is The employment of the clasp C, or its equivalent, in combination with the hoops and pockets a of the hoop supporting tapes, for

of the hoops in the pockets, hereinbefore described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of August, 1862.

CHARLES H. DE FOREST.

In presence of- LrNroN DE FoEEsr, THoMAs B. DE FoEEsT.

preventing the displacement or derangement 'i substantially as 

